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The perennial Meriwether Lewis

By

Anna Berkes

October, 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of Meriwether Lewis's bizarre death, and oh what a smorgasbord of Lewisiana there is to wallow around in this year. This past Sunday the Chicago Sun-Timesreviewed the latest Lewis biography, by Thomas Danisi and John Jackson; there also seems to have been a ramping-up of the debate around the perennial question of the nature of Lewis's death: murder or suicide? If you're a fan of both Meriwether Lewis and CSI, here's the book for you: The Death of Meriwether Lewis: A Historic Crime Scene Investigation, by Kira Gale and James E. Starrs (River Junction Press, 2009) - supposedly published April 1, although Amazon doesn't seem to have it in stock yet. And if you enjoy the intellectual equivalent of tennis matches, there's been a fascinating Battle of Worthies taking place in the Letters to the Editor Section of We Proceeded On(the journal of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation) - I think it began around November 2007, and for all I know it's still going on.

Anyway, as the possessors of possibly the biggest collection of published Lewis & Clark stuff on the planet, we have all this stuff, should you care to investigate the matter yourself...